The cathedral of St Peter, begun in 1162 by Eleanor of Guienne on the ruins of a Roman basilica, and well advanced at the time of her death in 1204, is a building after the Plantagenet or Angevin style. Its length is 308 feet, its width 128, and the keystone of the central vaulted roof is 89 feet above the pavement. There is no apse, and the exterior generally has a heavy appearance. The principal front has unfinished side-towers 105 and 110 feet in height, begun in the 13th century. Most of the windows of the choir and the transepts preserve their stained glass of the 12th and 13th centuries; the end window, which is certainly the first in the order of time, contains the figures of Henry II. of England and Eleanor. The choir stalls, carved between 1235 and 1257, are the oldest in France. The church of St Jean (originally a baptistery) near the cathedral is the most ancient Christian monument in the country. The church of St Hilaire was erected at the close of the 4th century over the tomb of the celebrated bishop. At first an unpretending oratory, it was rebuilt on a larger scale by Clovis, and afterwards became, in the 10th, 11 th, and 12th centuries, a sumptuous collegiate church, of which the nave was flanked by triple aisles and surmounted by six cupolas. Great damage was done to it in the wars of religion and the French Revolution. The confessional or oratory under the choir contains the relics of St Hilary and a Christian sarcophagus of the 4th century. The church of St Radegonde, a great resort of pilgrims, commemorates the consort of Hlothar I. (c. 550), and preserves in its crypt, not only the tomb of Radegonde, who founded at Poitiers the abbey of the Holy Cross, but those of St Agnes and St Disciola. The church is in the Angevin style; the choir is of the 11 th, and the nave of the 13 th century. Notre Dame la Grande, which dates from the close of the 11th century, and represents a collegiate church one or two hundred years older, has a richly sculptured Romanesque façade. The first stone of the church of Moutierneuf {Monasterium Novum) was laid in 1077 by William, duke of Aquitaine and count of Poitiers, who is buried within its walls; and the choir (afterwards in the 13th century modified by the erection of a “lantern ”) was solemnly consecrated by Urban II. in 1096. Mutilated about 1640 and during the Revolution, the building was partly restored between 1850 and 1860. The tower of St Porchaire, a precious remnant of 11th-century architecture, has been restored in the present generation under the auspices of the Antiquaires de 1’Ouest and the French archaeological society. Other churches of interest are the Chapel of the Lycée, that of the Sisters of the St Croix, and the old church of the Jesuits.

Among the secular buildings the first place belongs to the law courts, formerly the palace of the dukes of Aquitaine and counts of Poitiers, and rebuilt between the 12th and the 15th century. The Salle des Pas Perdus forms a fine nave 160 feet long by 56 feet wide, with a vaulted wooden roof. The southern wall is the work of Duke Jean de Berri, brother of Charles V.; above its three vast fireplaces are mullioned windows filled with stained glass. The Maubergeon tower attached to the palace represented the feudal centre of all the lordships of the countship of Poitiers. The prévôté or provost’s mansion, now occupied by a communal school, has a fine façade of the 15th century. In the new hôtel de ville, erected between 1869 and 1876, are museums of archaeology, natural history, and painting. The museum of the Antiquaires de 1’Ouest occupies the chapel and the great hall of the old university, now located in the old hôtel de ville; it is a valuable collection comprising Roman antiquities, Merovingian sculptures, medals, a fine Renaissance fireplace, <tc, The building devoted to the faculties of law, science, and literature (of which the first dates from 1431) also contains the library (35,000 printed volumes and 300 MSS.). The municipal records are very rich in charters of Eleanor of Aquitaine, Philip Augustus, Alphonse of Poitiers, &c. Convents and religious educational establishments are numerous in the town. The population of Poitiers in 1881 was 34,355.

Poitiers, called Limonum at the time of the Roman conquest, then took the name of its Gallic founders the Pictones or Pictavi. Christianity was introduced in the 3d century, and the first bishop of Poitiers, from 350 to 367, was St Hilarius (q.v.). Fifty years later the city had fallen into the hands of the Arian Visigoths, and become one of the principal residences of their kings. Alaric, one of their number, was defeated by Clovis at Vouillé not far from Poitiers in 507. This was the first occasion on which the peoples of northern and southern Gaul met in conflict in the neighbourhood of the town which was destined to see ’ them so frequently join battle. By his victory in 732 over the Mohammedans at Moussais-la-Bataille in this region, Charles Martel proved the saviour of Christendom. Under the Carlovingians, Poitiers was dependent on the crown and afterwards on the duchy of Aquitaine. Eleanor of Guienne, after her divorce from Louis VII., carried it to her new husband Henry Plantagenet. She frequently resided in the city, which she embellished and fortified, and in 1199 entrusted with communal rights. Philip Augustus, having confiscated the Continental territories of John of England, united Poitou to the French crown; Louis VIII. made it an apanage for his son Alphonse of Poitiers, who afterwards became count of Toulouse. At a plenary court held in 1241 in the great hall of the palais de justice, Alphonse received the homage of his numerous vassals. After his death in 1271 Poitou reverted to the crown. But, King John having been defeated and made prisoner in the disastrous battle of Poitiers (fought 4 miles E. of the town on the hillside of Nouaille, 19th September 1356), Poitou was recognized as an English possession by the treaty of Brétigny (I860). Nine years later it was recovered by Duguesclin; and it became in succession the apanage of Jean de Berri, brother of king Charles VI., and of the dauphin, afterwards Charles VII. It was at Poitiers that the latter was proclaimed king (1423); and he removed thither the parlement and university of Paris, which remained in exile till the English withdrew from the capital in 1436. During this interval (1429) Joan of Arc was subjected to a formal inquest by the doctors of the university. Calvin had numerous converts at Poitiers. Of the violent proceedings which attended the wars of religion the city had its share. In 1569 it was defended by Count du Lude against Coligny, who after an unsuccessful bombardment retired from the siege at the end of seven weeks.